Session Flow · 30-minute to 90-minute weekly team meeting

Holacracy Tactical Meeting

The operational meeting of Holacracy, built to process a lot of practical issues fast. A quick data-sharing preamble is followed by an agenda that the group builds on the spot and triages item by item, each ending in a concrete next action.

When to use Holacracy Tactical Meeting

Weekly operational meetings for self-organising or role-based teams with many small issues to clear.

How Holacracy Tactical Meeting works

Use the seven steps as blocks for a weekly operational team meeting; the triage block takes most of the time. It also works for teams that do not run full Holacracy if roles and a facilitator are named.

Phases of Holacracy Tactical Meeting

  1. Check-in Round: Each person names what has their attention so they can be present. One at a time, no responses.
  2. Checklist Review: The facilitator reads recurring actions and each role answers check or no check for the last period.
  3. Metrics Review: Roles that own a metric report the latest numbers, with clarifying questions only.
  4. Project Updates: Each project owner says what has changed since last time, or that nothing has.
  5. Agenda Building: People add operational tensions as one- or two-word labels, without explaining them yet.
  6. Triage Issues: Work through the items one by one: the owner says what they need, gets it from others, and the secretary records actions and projects.
  7. Closing Round: Each person gives a short reflection on the meeting, with no discussion.

Key principles

  • Agenda built in the meeting, not beforehand
  • Each item ends with 'did you get what you need?'
  • Rounds without cross-talk
  • Separate operations from governance
  • Facilitator and secretary roles

Best for

  • Self-organising teams
  • Operational team meetings
  • Role-based organisations
  • Teams with many small blockers

Considerations

  • Holacracy is a registered trademark of HolacracyOne
  • The strict facilitation can feel mechanical to newcomers
  • Changes to roles or policies belong in a separate governance meeting, not here
  • Works best when roles and metrics are already defined

Attribution & sources

Developed by Brian J. Robertson at Ternary Software and HolacracyOne, mid-2000s

Primary source

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